it is monday morning, just an hour till lunchtime, and i am sitting in a high school classroom. i was grateful to find a whole wall of windows - outside of which the wind is trying to tear the last leaves off the cottonwood branches and fling them into the cold, grey sky.
i am hoping that november beats october's count on sunshine-y days - october began with a string of cloudy days, then allowed us fourteen sunny days in a row, before the clouds rolled in again and have stayed into this fifth day of november.
my kids sometimes tease me about wanting {needing} sunny days - but i ache when i am not warm, and nothing warms me like the sun on my face, on my shoulders, on my jacket, through my windows. nothing else eases the ache in my bones quite like the sun. blankets and coffee, a soft sweater and the heat turned up help, but don't soak in and ease the ache they same way as sunshine.
i am following along with michelle's gratitude week - for the fourth year in a row! today, her prompt asked can you feel gratitude in your body? where does it rest? i am here, slightly chilled, my fingers working through their coolness to type these words. and i am certain that gratitude feels like sunshine. if i think about what i am most grateful for, it is almost like sitting in the sun. the practice of gratitude reminds me to slow my thoughts, to take deep breaths, to relax my shoulders, to unclench my jaw, to smile. the sun does the same.